Celebrity psychic hits back after ‘kicking Channel 4 crew out' during filming

Celebrity psychic Chris Riley has hit back at claims he kicked out Channel 4 filmmakers during a one-to-one reading with journalist Ben Zand.

Riley, a 29-year-old, said to earn around £300,000 from bookings, sat down with Zand at his Essex home for an episode of Life Uncovered titled Prove To Me You're Psychic.

The self-proclaimed "UK's best psychic" has his fair share of celebrity clients including Gemma Collins, Maura Higgins and more recently, Scott Disick.

A sceptical Zand had a glimpse into Riley's work, noting that while he really wanted to believe Riley's abilities, he didn't quite understand how it was scientifically possible.

In one part of the episode, things took a heated turn when Zand received his reading. Riley guessed his mother's name correctly, to which Zand suggested that the information could have been found online.

"I'm not here to prove this to you, I'm here to tell you what I feel," Riley said, before picking up on a "heavily male family."

Zand said that was not correct.

Riley then said: "So tell me then, siblings?"

Zand asked why he needed to give that information, to which Riley said: "Because you are telling me I'm not correct, so you can explain."

The footage then showed Zand asking how best to respond if he didn't know the answers – but things came to an abrupt halt.

"No, I'm stopping. You can turn it off," he said to the camera crew. "Sorry, can you turn it off? Just turn it off."

It was then Riley said he didn't want to carry on with the reading.

Zand later shared footage taken from his car, claiming he was "kicked out," and that "it ended in the worst possible way."

Since the YouTube release four days ago, Riley has broken his silence in a lengthy statement posted to Instagram.

He accused the programme of failing "to present a balanced view of psychic ability and seemed to be with the intent to cause embarrassment and alienate me with the benefit of attracting viewers to the channel to boost their own profile."

Riley went on to suggest that he didn't "kick them out" because he felt "rumbled," but that he was "misled as to the nature of this programme and wasn't given a release form until after filming."

Zand later reshared to his Instagram Story, writing: "Interesting."

A Zandland spokesperson told Indy100: "The Life Uncovered Channel 4 YouTube documentary series sees journalist Ben Zand lift the lid on often unconventional lifestyles and careers.

"The scenes in this film are a fair and accurate representation of what was captured as we followed Chris' life and work."

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